Article excerpt

Betty Jane Lloyd believed a woman could be both Peggy Olson and June Cleaver, if she so chose.

As thousands of American women joined the workforce in the 1960s, Miss Lloyd became an expert on what that meant to the individual, as well as the employer. A staunchly independent lady who lived in the same house in Munhall her entire life, she was an educator and outspoken advocate for women's career choices. She also was a devoted caregiver known to her circle of family and friends as "Aunt B."

"She never married, she never had children. We were her children," said Diane Pawlowski, a niece from Munhall. "I don't think she had the time. It wasn't a priority."

Miss Lloyd, who died Friday of natural causes at age 94, was an advocate for women's education. Having earned her undergraduate degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and a master's in business education from the University of Pittsburgh, she initially taught business classes in her alma mater, the Munhall School District.

In 1943, she joined the faculty of the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, one of four colleges composing Carnegie Tech. MMCC, as it was often referred, was an all-women's school that recognized emerging challenges for young ladies who might want to become homemakers, but also might hope to forge their ways into the world of business.

In a 1964 conference presentation in Pittsburgh, Miss Lloyd noted that "successful synthesis of family and job can be achieved only with early awareness by the undergraduate of the shape of her life."

Those hoping to pursue both paths, she added, can then "plan intelligently for the various phases of her life."

In an article in The Pittsburgh Press on June 4, 1961, Miss Lloyd noted that the idea of women being "too emotional" for long-term employment was outdated.

"It's a good idea to investigate the individual woman's plans for the future, not lump all women together as non-permanent," she said.

Miss Lloyd would later become first assistant to the MMCC dean (1958-63), then associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (now the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences). …